I have an overarching theory that I arrived at after a lot of diggning and beyond. I have a suspicion that a lot of infections by toxoplasma and similar organisms go undiagnosed, in part because the diagnostic methods are very outdated, and in part due to arrogance. and habit on the part of the medical establishment.
There have been strong connections established between this particular organism and neurological diseases, cognitive disorders, etc. etc. But the medical industry has not yet figured out how to monetize this, and so it is sitting out there as an obscure thought, and research is research, and medicine is medicine, and those two live on two separate planets.
I actually suspect that a lot of "long COVID" (perhaps not all of it but a sizeable chunk of it) is caused by undiagnosed microorganisms like toxoplasma (and possibly other ones) who have been sitting quietly or mostly quietly in many people until the immune system was disrupted, and then, once the immune system is compromised, which has happened on massive scale, incrementally and then suddenly, they rear their ugly heads, but the doctors don't even think in this direction for the most part, and so the people suffer, and keep suffering.
I think the prevailing notion in medicine about the pros/cons of parasites are worth reviewing. On one hand, maybe toxoplasmosis is actually more toxic than is made out to be. On the other hand, it's possible that our more sterile lifestyles have removed parasites that would have had some symbiotic relationship with us and may be responsible for helping with regulating our immune system. Given what we now know about the microbiome, the possibility of us having a virome as well as a mycobiome (for fungi) there's likely a lot more nuance than we give credit for. More importantly, we're likely far less clean that we would hope to be, and that may be for our benefit.
It'd be interesting to view the idea of toxoplasmosis with respect to COVID, however in doing so it has to be done within the context of other infections agents as well i.e. why would it occur with more prevalence in COVID than with other infections? Then that would have to be compared to symptom onset as well and see if there's any overlap.
I think it's an interesting idea. I'm not against the idea that latent infections are reactivated- we can tell given the shingles outbreak post-vaccination, but the little bits of information that tie everything together is unfortunately what's lacking.
There's always a ton I feel needs to get covered, including all of the different viral outbreaks but all of that becomes overbearing for both me and readers so I end up just linking to different articles. I'm fortunate that the only person I've seen with Parkinson's has been Michael J. Fox but it really is fascinating in a very morbid sense to consider how these neurological diseases manifest.
Yeah it is fascinating isn't it? These neurodegenerative diseases are a subset human debilitation like no other. Btw, I think it's fine to link to articles.
I have an overarching theory that I arrived at after a lot of diggning and beyond. I have a suspicion that a lot of infections by toxoplasma and similar organisms go undiagnosed, in part because the diagnostic methods are very outdated, and in part due to arrogance. and habit on the part of the medical establishment.
There have been strong connections established between this particular organism and neurological diseases, cognitive disorders, etc. etc. But the medical industry has not yet figured out how to monetize this, and so it is sitting out there as an obscure thought, and research is research, and medicine is medicine, and those two live on two separate planets.
I actually suspect that a lot of "long COVID" (perhaps not all of it but a sizeable chunk of it) is caused by undiagnosed microorganisms like toxoplasma (and possibly other ones) who have been sitting quietly or mostly quietly in many people until the immune system was disrupted, and then, once the immune system is compromised, which has happened on massive scale, incrementally and then suddenly, they rear their ugly heads, but the doctors don't even think in this direction for the most part, and so the people suffer, and keep suffering.
Anyway, the article is very detailed. If you can't access it because it is behind the paywall on Dr. Mercola's Substack, here is a link to the PDF https://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/Public/2022/September/PDF/chronic-active-toxoplasmosis-pdf.pdf
https://takecontrol.substack.com/p/chronic-active-toxoplasmosis
Thanks for the links Tessa!
I think the prevailing notion in medicine about the pros/cons of parasites are worth reviewing. On one hand, maybe toxoplasmosis is actually more toxic than is made out to be. On the other hand, it's possible that our more sterile lifestyles have removed parasites that would have had some symbiotic relationship with us and may be responsible for helping with regulating our immune system. Given what we now know about the microbiome, the possibility of us having a virome as well as a mycobiome (for fungi) there's likely a lot more nuance than we give credit for. More importantly, we're likely far less clean that we would hope to be, and that may be for our benefit.
It'd be interesting to view the idea of toxoplasmosis with respect to COVID, however in doing so it has to be done within the context of other infections agents as well i.e. why would it occur with more prevalence in COVID than with other infections? Then that would have to be compared to symptom onset as well and see if there's any overlap.
I think it's an interesting idea. I'm not against the idea that latent infections are reactivated- we can tell given the shingles outbreak post-vaccination, but the little bits of information that tie everything together is unfortunately what's lacking.
Thanks for this in-depth dive into parkinson's. As a physical therapist I've treated many people with this ailment, it sure is a tough one.
There's always a ton I feel needs to get covered, including all of the different viral outbreaks but all of that becomes overbearing for both me and readers so I end up just linking to different articles. I'm fortunate that the only person I've seen with Parkinson's has been Michael J. Fox but it really is fascinating in a very morbid sense to consider how these neurological diseases manifest.
Yeah it is fascinating isn't it? These neurodegenerative diseases are a subset human debilitation like no other. Btw, I think it's fine to link to articles.